One of the more frequent questions may beginners have is how to care for the adenium (desert rose) to create a bigger caudex (exposed root system). The image is a hybrid adenium triple flower that was grafted about 1 year ago. The graft is right below the last branch. You will not notice the graft line after a year due to the growth of the caudex. When you grow the desert rose adeniums select a pot that is wider than deep. This forces the root system to become exposed as it grows.
Think of a bonsai pot when growing your desert rose. They may be 12″ to 20″ wide but only a couple inches deep. As you grow the desert rose keep the plant confined into a pot with only 2 to 2.5″ to spare around it (‘2’ caudex use 4.5″ pot, 4″ caudex use 6″ pot). Notice when the person who cared for adenium repotted it (above) he exposed, move a larger root to the top of the soil to expand the exposed caudex area. At the same time he trimmed other roots that would have been exposed so the growth goes mostly to the exposed root caudex and to the lower roots
Growing and caring for desert roses, adeniums, is just like growing other succulents and cacti. Water once a week depending upon your climate in very porous soil and light fertilization if you are not growing in the ground. Desert rose growing and care can be grown in any region but they do need protection in cooler climates.
Image Grafted hybird Adenium Desert Rose tiple flower
Ive enjoyed reading your site as I have begun desert rose plants from seed in 4″ clay pots with trays. I have 10 plants ranging from 8 weeks to 1 week. All seeds germinated around 4 days. My oldest 2 (8 weeks old) are quite different already…one being 4″ tall with 12 leaves, the other barely 3″ tall with 11 leaves and somewhat fatter than the other.
I live in South Central Florida, have a Florida room with good natural light as well as direct sunlight for close to 5 hours. I basically water daily (I just fill the bottom small tray and water from below), about every 3 days I mist the dried soil around the seedling. On especially hotter days I might water again from below in the evening. My question is…my seedlings are doing fine now, should I continue in this matter or am I under or over watering? These clay pot trays (from Walmart) are not that deep.
When growing adeniums by seeds its important to keep them moist for the first few weeks. The ones that are 8 weeks old should be allowed to dry between watering. Since you live in central Florida I would wait until 12 weeks and then put them outside. If you have single plants in 4″ containers then they are too big to start out seedlings. You need to crap the roots to grow a large adenium caudex. When we plant adenium seeds AdeniumRose Company LLC uses a community tray which is 10″ x 20″ and put in about 200 seeds. Yes, adeniums germinate better in a community container. We do not transplant them into 2″ x 2″ x 2″ individual pots until they are 3 months old and the trunks are a brownish color. The seedlings get 8..10 hours a day of light (70% sunlight) once the adenium plants are 3 months old. Prior to that time we use either grow lights or filtered sun light depending upon the time of year.
Mike
Thanx Mike for your reply on July 30, 2012. I have transplanted (downsized the pot size to 2″ clay) for some of the younger plants. One didn’t make it but the rest are doing fine. My next grouping hopefully will be started in a community container, if I can find one.
Rob –
You can reuse a lot of different things as a Community Pot to start your seeds. I like the clear plastic Strawberry containers with the snap lids. Many different bakery containers. I’ve used plastic reusable ‘tupperware’ type. You can even use a 4″ pot. Depending on how many seeds you are starting at once. I find a lot of different community pots at ‘Dollar’ stores. You’ll look at all things differently.
I repotted 2 desert roses from plastic pots that were too small. Replanted 3 days ago on the ground. I was not sure how to plant, as I noticed 2 very fat white bulbs on either side of one plant and a fat white root from base where I thought the caudex should be.
My husband insisted that we should not bury them underground, and I insisted that we should. Could you please advise if they are indeed caudex that I unknowingly created and why are they white. If left exposed, will they get green/brown and will they be scorched by sun. I live in the caribbean.
The white part is the caudex/roots that was not exposed to sunlight. It will turn darker like the rest of the caudex. sorry- your husband was more correct. You only need to plant about 2″ of the root below the grow (sometimes less), Also, use rooting hormone before planting (Dyan-Gro K-L-N) to get the plant to recover faster and grow stronger roots.
I have adeniums 15 of them and the caudex is almost 5 inches ig. How to report them and what is the size of pots to use?
If you mean a caudex of 5″ wide then you want a pot about 3″ deep and about 7″ wide. Remember to check the width in both directions of the caudex. 8″ rectangle pot is only about 4 to 5 inches wide. Make sure the pots have good drainage and we recommend clay (glazed on sides only).
Hi… i have failed at grafting. What do i do? Can i attempt new grafting or shall i leave the plant alone until new brunches sprout?
Grafting adeniums is a bit of an art. Its best to do grafting in early spring and summer. Now is a bit late unless you are in a tropical environment.
Hello. I have a 7 yo DR with a Caudex girth of approximately 19 inches. The DR is approximately 2 feet tall and is an indoor plant as I live in Virginia (sees time outside in the warm months). Time to re-pot. I would like to continue to grow the caudex but finding a shallow pot wide enough is somewhat difficult as the root system is quite extensive. In a deep Terra Cotta pot now. Any suggestions?
A trick to spread out the roots: use a large rock or ball to put in the pot first. Place the adenium above the rock forcing the roots outwards (spread out over the ball). You may need to cut some roots off (make sure you let them heal before potting) Find a wide pot even if deep. If it is too deep fill with rocks except for the top 5..6 inches and then Gardner cloth (weed block) above the rocks to retain the soil. You will need to repot every year because soil Gardner cloth deteriorates over time.
A trick to spread out the roots: use a large rock or ball to put in the pot first. Place the adenium above the rock forcing the roots outwards (spread out over the ball). You may need to cut some roots off (make sure you let them heal before potting) Find a wide pot even if deep. If it is too deep fill with rocks except for the top 5..6 inches and then Gardner cloth (weed block) above the rocks to retain the soil. You will need to repot every year because soil Gardner cloth deteriorates over time.
very useful tips.thanks.
Hi, I like to read your blogs, now I need a bit of advice myself. You have mentioned in your blog to use a pot that is only a few times bigger than the width of the caudex of the Adenium to produce a fat caudex. So in April I repotted my 14 month old seedlings from 9cm square to 7cm square pots. Since then I have no new growth at all and they don’t look so good. What should I do, leave them as they are, repot them in 9cm pots or do this in spring next year? I live in Holland, the growing period is till September, but I can extend this with LED growing lights. Thanks for your advice! Kind regards, Annette
The pot is only one element. What soil are you using? fertilizing or not? Amount of sunlight? We leave our seedlings in the 1 inch liners until the root/caudex is busting the plastic.
Thanks for your reply. I used a soil mixture of 60% perlite, 15% coir, 15% potting soil and 10% breaker sand. The same mixture I used when I potted my 4 month old seedlings in 9cm square pots last year. They grew well but but were stretched. Because I want a fat caudex I repotted them in 7cm square pots this year, to try to achieve that. I feed them weakly weekly (1/2 the normal dose of NPK 20-20-20 fertilizer). Last year I kept them shielded from direct sunlight, this year not. I hope to have yet given you enough information. Thanks again for your advice!
Kind regards, Annette
We do not use any sand or potting soil in our mixes. We use a 100% soiless mixture of coir 45%, course perlite 50% (will be switching to wood fiber very soon instead of perlite), time released fertilizer and abou 5% peat (we do not add peat but its in the base mix we use).